Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of <i>Acalypha wilkesiana</i> leaves in alloxan induced diabetic rats

Abstract

The effect of daily administration of aqueous extract of Acalypha wilkesiana administered orally at a dose of 400mg/kg was studied in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Furthermore, the hypoglycemic effect of a single dose of 400mg/kgmethanolic extract ofAcalypha wilkesianawas also evaluated within 24 hours of dosing the rats.Glibenclamide, Polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate (Tween 80) and distilled water were orally administered to equal number of rats as positive and negative controls, respectively. Effect of oral administration of aqueous extract Acalypha wilkesiana(400 mg/kg) on blood glucoselevel, triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL) were determined. The 400 mg/kg dose of aqueous extracts caused 50.8% reductions in blood glucose when compared to 70.6% reduction caused by Glibenclamide, a standard antidiabetic agent after 21 days treatment. The aqueous extract also caused statistically significant (p<0.05) decrease in the values of serum cholesterol (121±0.5) mg/dl, LDL (61.70±1.4) mg/dl but produced statistically significant (p<0.05) increase in the value of HDL (42.95±1.0) mg/dl when compared to the untreated control. The hourly percentage glucose reductions obtained, revealed a steady decrease from 10.7% at 30mins post administration of the extract to 43.8% reduction at 24 hours.This is comparable with the 52.4% reduction obtained at 24hr post administration of standard antidiabetic agent by Glibenclamide. The study supports the medicinal use of A. wilkesianafor its antidiabetic action and reports the hypolipidemic activities of the plant.

Keywords: Hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, Acalypha wilkesiana, leaves